No. 2 Alabama 32, No. 1 Florida 13: final thoughts

Alabama players celebrate with the Southeastern Conference championship trophy that they earned with a 32-13 victory over Florida. (The Birmingham News / Hal Yeager)ATLANTA -- If Leigh Tiffin had not missed an early point-after-touchdown kick, or Alabama had made a fourth-quarter two-point conversion attempt, the final score of today's SEC Championship Game would have been 34-13.

The same as the Sugar Bowl following the 1992 season.

How about that?

That was the last time Alabama won one of the 12 national championships that it claims.

The Tide also was ranked No. 2 in that game, and it was an underdog to No. 1 Miami, which had a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback.

Florida wide receiver David Nelson, a fifth-year senior who scored the Gators' only touchdown today on a 23-yard catch from Tim Tebow in the second quarter, said he wishes Alabama "nothing but luck."

"I've been part of a couple of
national championship teams," Nelson said. "This is as good a team as I've ever seen. They
stuck it to us early and kept at it till the end of the game."

Alabama never trailed in the game, scoring on its first two possessions.

The Tide gained 490 yards against a top-ranked defense that was allowing only 233 per game.

It scored 32 points on a team that led the nation in scoring defense (9.83 ppg).

Mark Ingram ran back toward the forefront of the Heisman Trophy race with 189 all-purpose yards (113 rushing) and three touchdowns. That, combined with a subpar performance by Texas quarterback Colt McCoy, could make the final voting very close. Maybe the trophy will go to Stanford senior running back Toby Gerhart (1,736 rushing yards, 26 TDs).

Ingram now has 1,542 yards rushing and has scored 18 touchdowns. He broke Bobby Humphrey's single-season rushing record (1,471) set in 1986.

Three-and-outs by Alabama's defense at the start of each half set the tone for the victory. Following the one at the start of the third quarter, Alabama drove 74 yards in five plays and scored on a 17-yard TD pass from Greg McElroy to Colin Peek.